Memoirs and morsels from home and abroad

stand proud

I had moved to NY after college and a friend who had been in my college dance company, then working for an entertainment lawyer, was able to get us comp tickets to see “Riverdance.” Not just any comp tickets — the best in the house, which in case any of you are wondering, for a dance performance or musical theater, is generally front row center mezzanine, not orchestra. This (as opposed to “Lord of the Dance” which is all about Michael Flatley taking off his shirt and prancing around) remains one of my favorite shows because it gives a version of Irish history through music, song, and dance.

Initially I had a difficult time relating to some of the dance — the performers on stage seemed so stiff. Their ramrod torsos with arms on hips or straight at their sides while their feet seemed to go a mile a minute in military rhythms, heel and toe clicks, high kicks, fast knee bends that made me repeatedly flinch for fear of a flying shoe. The real action starts around 2:20 in this excerpt from the finale:

The explanation for the posture came about mid-way through the first act when right before one number, a disembodied voice commands, “Irish dancers, stand proud!” A proud army they were, straight posture, heads high, shoulders down, feet-a-flutter.

I was so excited, too, when I took a few Irish step classes and the first thing we learned was to put our hands out in front of us, palms up, fold our thumbs in, curl our fingers over our thumbs, and lower our arms to our sides. A proud army ourselves even in our mishmash of leotards, jeans, tights, and tap shoes.

Wanting to make something for St. Patrick’s Day, I tried to learn a bit about the Jews of Ireland (through food of course) to find something to cook that would incorporate Jewish traditions and Irish pride. I couldn’t find any “Jewish Irish dishes” in searching through my multi-cultural Jewish cookbooks and few of my Irish Jewish friends seem to cook.

“Irish” butter cookies made by The Baking Architect

I turned to Ellie, The Baking Architect, who participated in a bike trip through the Emerald Isle a few years ago to raise money for Miklat, to suggest some authentic Irish recipes, maybe made by Jews in Ireland, but she could only send me some beautifully decorated butter cookies. I have little patience for such fussiness and sweet icing (sorry, El).

I found a Scottish scone recipe — close enough to Irish? — that didn’t call for fancy flour or buttermilk. This recipe does use a LOT of butter. 3 sticks! I’ll keep playing with some of the proportions, but this makes a really nice, moist scone that is not dry. I replaced whole milk with skim milk, increasing 3/4 C to 1 full C. Replaced raisins with cinnamon chips and chocolate chips and added some cinnamon to the batter.

If you’re going to bake with butter, you might as well use Plugrá or another European style butter with a slightly higher (82-84% vs. 80-82%) butterfat content than American-style butter. The cinnamon chips (parve) I used are from Peppermill, a high-end cookware and bakeware with gourmet products. The Schokinag semi-sweet baking chunks (dairy) are available at Williams-Sonoma (thanks, Mom!) — and have a nice half-barrel shape. Really, any good chocolate chunk will do. My other alternative was to chop up some Callebaut (see the Resources page about this chocolate).

Makes 12-16 scones

4 C all-purpose flour

1 C sugar

2 t baking powder

1 t salt

3/4 unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (YES – THIS IS 3 STICKS OF BUTTER)

Add in beaten egg and milk – stir until well combined and then knead in bowl until smooth, about 5-10 minutes. This is not a tough dough, but it is a bit sticky. Add a little extra flour as necessary.

Add chips and a few dashes of cinnamon — so there are swirls of cinnamon, but not a brown dough.

Refrigerate dough ~3o minutes so it is easier to handle.

Shape the scones.

Option 1: Make triangles that are just barely attached — like the proud Irish dancers standing in close formation. To shape into triangles, take out ~ 1C of dough and flatten into a 1-inch thick round patty on a floured board. A good estimate of an inch that I learned from my architect sister: distance from most adult thumbs to the first knuckle is approximately 1 inch (obviously depends on the size of your hands). Cut patty into quarters and transfer onto parchment-lined (or greased) baking sheet, separating quarters by a finger width (~1/2 inch) because scones will rise and spread a little – I think it’s nice for the quarters to meet a bit in the middle, but not so much that they need to be pulled apart. As they bake, they will make a 4-leaf clover, er, shamrock, for good luck – and who can’t use a little extra luck (random interesting note, most shamrocks are 3-leaf clovers and are said to represent the Trinity)

Option 2: Make “drop scones” with a small ice cream scooper (should be ~1/4 C). You might need a second spoon (or your hands) to get the dough out. Flatten a bit with a floured hand to 1-inch thickness (see “Option 1″ for thumb measuring stick approximation).

Sprinkle lightly with turbinado sugar so the scones will glisten slightly after cooking, but not so much that there will be a hard sugary crust.

Repeat with rest of dough. I had to make 2 batches.

Bake for 25 minutes. I had to move my first batch from the middle rack to the top rack for the last 5 minutes because the bottoms were getting a bit too dark, so check your scones after about 15-20 minutes and adjust position as necessary.

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10 Responses

As I read the story and reached the “Scone” decision … I began to think “chocolate” … and when I got to the “Cinnamon Chocolate Scones” title I was not disappointed … because about the only way to improve on “chocolate” is to add “cinnamon” … QED

Chocolate, cinnamon and butter sounds decadent. And scones are more practical than my fancy Irish shamrocks with royal icing. But I do wonder if there is a parve scone option – or is that a contradiction in terms?

Ellie —
I think it’s the butter that makes these really decadent, especially since I made these with skim milk. The chips are kept to a minimum and the cinnamon just gives a little extra flavor that permeates but does not overwhelm. I, like you, am always interested in trying to make parve/non-dairy options. This one might need to be relegated to the breakfast/brunch table because the texture is pretty nice and too much messing could be dangerous. BUT, if you want to experiment with me — here are my thoughts — good margarine (”earth balance” is what I’ve found here in Cambridge and it’s better than Fleishman’s) and maybe a soy milk or rice milk (not vanilla).

While I’m not an Irish Jew, I sort of am – I live in Ireland with my Dublin-born hubby, and I’m Jewish (he’s not, though he loves my kasha varnishkes and Sephardic borekas, so there’s hope for him yet, LOL).

You’re right – it’s a bit of a problem finding Irish-Jewish recipes, and even though there were a few Lord Mayors of Dublin that were Jewish, and a former President of Ireland was born in Israel and was Jewish, and there’s a Jewish Museum in Dublin (excellent, by the way), there are sadly very few Jews living in Ireland any longer, and there are only three synagogues (that I know of, anyway) still in existence.

As you’d correctly stated, it’s sad that even Dublin’s Little Jerusalem (mostly Clanbrassil Street) that once had cafes and bagel shops and kosher butchers, don’t even have Bretzel’s as a proper kosher noshery any longer. I’ve been to Bretzel’s, and it’s okay – the bagels and the bialys are okay (or as Molly O’Neill once referred to them, baileys) – but it’s just not the same once you know and realise that it’s no longer even Jewish owned).

The scones recipe you got/adopted from Molly O’Neill’s book is excellent (especially for me, as a born-and-bred New Yorker), but, as you’ve said yourself, it’s a Scottish recipe, which is similar but ever-so-slightly different to the traditional Irish recipe.

If you’d like the Irish variation on the theme, or if anyone of your readers would like it, I’d be happy to post it.

In the meantime, I’ll keep checking out the bookshops in Dublin next time we visit (we’re on the other side of the country, on the west coast) and try to find an Irish-Jewish cookbook…somewhere, someone must have done a cookbook on this subject. I mean, if I can find the amazing ‘Cookbook of the Jews of Greece’ on ebay (an amazing, beautiful cookbook, might I add), then there’s just gotta be an Irish Jewish cookbook, right?

Thanks for all the info on Jewish Ireland. I would love to get your Irish take on scones. Ironically, I have “Cookbook of the Jews of Greece” that I bought at the Athens Jewish Museum before an island hopping tour. You’ve inspired me to flip through it again – it has some great fish recipes!

In a bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients (except for the sugar). Rub in the butter wtih your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Now add in the sugar, the dried fruit and mixed fruit peel, combining them all with a knife, and then add buttermilk as you go along, bit by bit, stirring with the knife, until you feel you have a soft dough.

Turn out onto a large surface, sprinkled with more flour, and divide into 2 inch rounds, each about 1/2 inch thick.

Place on a baking sheet (lightly greased with butter) and glaze with a little more buttermilk or a beaten egg, if you prefer a more shiny coating.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until well risen and golden.

Makes a dozen scones.

You can also make this recipe as a ‘scone cake’ – just pour mixture into a large round tin, and bake for 25 minutes instead of ten.

I have other variations on the theme – brown scones, strawberry scones, cheese scones, nutty scones,
apple cinnamon spice scones…even potato scones (potatoes are still the staple of Irish food – especially in the west), but this is the recipe I find myself returning to each time, and usually comes out resembling the traditional Irish scones that the women of long-ago Ireland would hopefully approve of if they tasted mine.

How cool that you also have the ‘Cookbook of the Jews of Greece.’ It’s a wonderful book – I think the illustrations are stunning, as is the way the book is written – not just the recipes, but the stories and history and regional references that accompany each recipe. I’m so glad I finally found this book – at an affordable price (long live ebay!).

Hope you found ‘my’ recipe (not mine really, but the standard traditional way of making scones, adopted and adapted by me) helpful.

Thanks for allowing me the space for such a long comment. I’m happy to share. I’ve only just found your blog and I think it’s lovely and beautifully designed and written.

About

Hi! I'm Gayle, and here I use my Hebrew name Zahavah. I work front of house in a restaurant where I'm learning the hospitality industry from the ground up. Up until a year ago, I was a health care consultant. Also, I have an MD. Go figure! Thanks for dropping by and joining the conversation.

koshercamembert@gmail.com

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